1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a conductive plate element in an IC socket, and more particularly to an improved conductive plate element which provides better contact with an IC pin inserted into the socket.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Some ICs such as central processing units (CPUs) are quite sensitive to temperature, thus they are apt to be damaged if exposed to high temperature for a period of time such as being directly soldered onto a printed circuit board. Therefore, it is common to provide an IC socket mating with the pins of the IC to replace the latter to be directly soldered on the printed circuit board, thus preventing the IC from being directly exposed to high temperature. For this purpose, the inventor of the present invention has disclosed an IC socket in U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,214 as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. The IC socket of U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,214 as shown separately comprises a cover 10 slidably engaged to a base 20 which defines a plurality of slots 21 in rows therein. The cover 10 has a plurality of holes 11 defined therein for receiving a corresponding number of IC pins 31 which are formed in an IC 30. A plurality of conductive plate elements 40 are serially connected as a row by a linking plate 400. Each conductive plate element 40 is positioned in a corresponding slot 21 of the base 20. Firstly, a row of the conductive plate element 49 is inserted into a row of slots 21. Secondly, the linking plate 400 is manually torn apart from the row of conductive plate elements 40. For clarification, the IC 30, the cover 10, the conductive plate elements 40, and the base 20 are illustrated partially. The base 20 has a plurality of slots 21 so defined therein that each one of them corresponds to one of the holes 11 of the cover 10 and is in communication with the corresponding hole 11. The slot 21 has a greater width than the diameter of the hole 11. The cover 10 is slidable on the base 20 for substantially a distance equaling the width of the slot 21. When the cover 10 is slid on the base 20, a relative movement between each hole 11 and the corresponding slot 21 is limited to a width of the slot 21, therefore each corresponding hole and slot is retained in communication with each other.
Each slot 21 extends downwardly at a bottom of the socket 20, where the bottom defines an aperture in communication with the slot 21. A conductive plate element 40 is received in each slot 21 for providing electrical contact between the IC pin 31 and the printed circuit board. Particularly referring to FIG. 6, each conductive plate element 40 is substantially a fork comprising a left upper plate 41 and a right upper plate 42 both intersected at a lower intersection portion 45 thereof. A shoulder 46 extends substantially perpendicular to the intersection portion 45 of the two upper plates 41, 42, and is bent downward as a lower plate 47. Actually, the left upper plate 41 and the right upper plate 42 are not in a same plane. The right upper plate 42 has a contact portion 43 at a top thereof curved and extended in a direction to the left upper plate 41 thus forming a guiding portion 430. The left upper plate 41 and the right upper plate 42 are not coplanar, thus when the IC pin 31 is originally inserted into the slot 21, the IC pin 31 is such positioned that it is in loose contact with the left upper plate 41, after then, the IC pin 31 is further manually pulled by the cover 10 to firmly contact with the contact portion 43 of the right upper plate 42. The shoulder 46 of the conductive plate element 40 is positioned at an inner bottom of the slot 21 thus preventing the conductive plate element 40 from being moved downward when the corresponding IC pin 31 is inserted into the slot 21. After the IC pin 31 has been inserted into the slot 21, the cover 10 is manually pulled in a direction such that the IC pin 31 is moved to firmly contact the contact portion 43 of the right upper plate 42 through the guiding portion 430 of the right upper plate 42. However, in practical use, to pull the cover 10 thereby moving each IC pin 31 through the corresponding guiding portion 430 of the right upper plate 42 to the contact portion 43 requires considerable effort from the user especially for those CPU ICs including pins of up to a hundred or even more. It is requisite to provide an improved conductive plate element which allows the user to operate the IC socket with ease and still retains the IC pin in the IC socket firmly.